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The recruitment process is often a long and difficult journey.

From writing the job description to draw the right candidates in, to asking the right questions at interview and selecting the right new employee… the recruitment process takes time and money, so it’s crucial for companies to recruit the right employee, first time round.

Sara Horsfall, CEO of Ginibee

In 2016, Recrion was asked for help by Sara Horsfall, CEO and founder of a tech startup, Ginibee. Formed in 2013, Ginibee researched the lack of senior level job-sharing opportunities in the UK and developed and launched its job-sharing matching platform in 2016.

Sara was planning to scale up her business, so sought Katherine’s help with the following recruitment questions:

Should I recruit?

What type of person does my company need?

How can I tell if candidates have the right potential?

How can I attract high quality candidates to a start-up?

What questions should I ask in the interview and how do I interpret their answers?

If your company is in the process of recruiting, then these questions probably sound familiar!

The recruitment coaching journey Sara Horsfall went through …

Should I recruit?

Katherine started by encouraging Sara to take a step back. By discussing the pros and cons of alternatives to recruitment (for example hiring freelancers or contractors), Ginibee was able to make a fully considered, strategic evaluation of whether to hire or not.

What type of person does my company need?

Then Katherine worked with Sara to evaluate her own motivational traits (and gaps). This highlighted what motivations needed to be present in a candidate, in order to find and hire a new employee with a complementary working style to Sara’s.

“Through Katherine’s coaching and expertise in language and behaviour, I discovered ways of describing these preferences that helped focus the search for a compatible first hire. For example, I am goal orientated and like to jump in and take the initiative. I realised that I needed input from others who take their time making decisions and recognise that things might go wrong, to help me make a balanced judgement.”

How can I tell if candidates have the right potential?

Once an effective and strategic job description had been created, the next stage was to interview potential candidates. Katherine carried out pre-screening telephone interviews using the LAB Profile to listen to their language patterns and decipher how they think, make decisions and behave at work. Ginibee reported that outsourcing this stage of the process saved them time, but also managed to filter out candidates with the right motivational fit for the role, saving them time at interview.

How can I attract high quality candidates to a start-up?

For the candidates, the career conversations they had during telephone interviews made them feel that Ginibee was a company that carefully handpicked their employees rather than simply ticking boxes. It made them stand out as an employer, asking pertinent questions and investing time in the recruitment process. One candidate said:

“I had a very interesting conversation with Katherine in the telephone interview to analyse/examine my actions/reactions, the related feelings and the reasons I do what I do. It gave me the chance to sit down and formalise the person I am. I appreciated the opportunity to re-assess past experience and how I could make the future ones better.”

What questions should I ask in the interview and how do I interpret their answers?

Candidates that made it through the pre-screening telephone interview were then invited to interview. Sara found that having Katherine on the interview panel brought:

“A greater depth to the interpretation of responses and the awareness of language the candidates used. Interviews are high-pressure environments! There are lots of different things and areas to consider during a very short time period. Carefully choosing the language used in phrasing each question at the same time as interpreting the language used by a candidate is a difficult task. Katherine was therefore able to add greater depth to the level of insight that is not usually uncovered during a single interview.”

“Focusing on recruiting for potential (rather than direct experience) opened up a greater talent pool. During the interview, discussing real scenarios required the candidates to apply knowledge and experience that was directly relevant to the role, rather than just recounting past examples. This gave both the interviewer and the candidate a more accurate picture of how the role would play out, which increased the chances of identifying a compatible role and cultural match.”

And the Results …

During the interview process an ideal new employee was identified and consequently hired.

“Katherine is a pleasure to work with. Without using words, Katherine’s approach disrupts a train of thought and makes you very aware of your unconscious assumptions. This causes you to validate or ignore them, which is extremely useful when making an important hiring decision. Her knowledge and experience of the full recruitment process and people’s motivations make her input extremely valuable when embarking on a recruitment process.”Sara Horsfall

Recruiting a new employee is an extremely important success factor for any company. Using the right language and knowing how to question and probe a candidate’s response, is a powerful tool in order to identify and hire the right candidate for your team.

Are you embarking on a recruitment drive? Reach out to Katherine today to find out how she could support your recruitment process and help you to identify and hire the right new employee.